Helices in Proteins

From Proteopedia

Helical conformations in proteins

This page illustrates the 3 most common helical conformations (among secondary structures) found in proteins.

Each of the three examples below is a decapeptide fragment extracted from an actual protein structure in the PDB. They are shown using the same scale, for a better comparison (as a consequence, zoom in the Jmol applets is disabled).

To re-align the 3 models, either reload this page or click on each of the 3 green 'Reset' links.

The alpha helix is by far the most common helix. Note that it is a right-handed helix when formed with the common L-amino acids[1][2][3]. (It is left-handed when formed with D-amino acids[1][2][3].) When viewed from either end, right-handed helices turn clockwise when followed away from you.